Abstract
Annick TR Wibben’s Feminist Security Studies: A Narrative Approach rethinks security theory from a feminist perspective. What is unique here is engaging feminism, security studies and strategic studies to provide a distinct feminist approach to security studies. The book is organized into six chapters. Each chapter deals with a different topic, although all of them work ‘through and beyond security studies to explore possible spaces where an opening of security, necessary to make way for feminist insights, can take place’ (p. 9). Chapter 1 (‘Feminist interventions: The politics of identity’) introduces the feminist concerns and approaches to security issues. It focuses mainly on the consequences of identity politics. It also mentions feminist contributions to security debates that the field of security studies tends to ignore.
In the next chapter (‘Challenging meanings’), the author introduces the reader into how the world is made meaningful. It starts with the description of modern science as a response to particular historical events during the Enlightenment era and proposes other modes of knowledge production. In this chapter, philosophical hermeneutics is used to look at the ways in which meaning is produced. Chapter 3 (‘Toward a narrative approach’) develops a feminist narrative approach to social and political enquiry. Narrative theory is discussed in relation to the analysis of September 11, 2001 and George W Bush’s address that evening. This analysis shows how a particular version of normality was created. Chapter 4 (‘Security as narrative’) focuses on approaches to security as narrative, using the feminist narrative approach. At the beginning, the author describes how security studies have changed from the postwar era through the Cold War and how a combination of narrative elements gives meaning to security.
In Chapter 5 (‘Feminist security narratives’), the reader can find three examples of feminist security narratives to illustrate how the meaning of security is contextual. Wibben shows how state security often produces insecurity, especially for marginalized populations. At the end of the chapter there is a discussion of the implications of the narrative approach to security, including how it provides a possible discussion about the meaning and politics of security. The last chapter (‘The future of feminist security studies’) discusses the future of feminist security studies.
The book explores themes that at first glance seem unrelated. However, both feminism and security studies are marked by political issues, and thus they can be analysed from a common point of view and connection, which is what the author does. The main goal of the book is to show the reader that women are involved in matters of international security much more broadly than it is usually assumed. The largest contribution in highlighting this have been feminist scholars. They have drawn public attention to the issues of feminist security studies.
One of the weaknesses of this book is that it seems to focus too much on the narrative approach, and not enough on feminism and security studies issues. The reader can also get an impression that the author devotes too much of the book to introducing the philosophical and methodological issues related to the creation of meaning. In truth, only Chapter 1 refers to feminism, whereas the title of the book suggests that the book is going to be concerned – at least to some extent – with feminist studies. Thus, the book seems to be of little use to the study of feminism as such. In terms of security studies, it also seems that Wibben’s work does not go beyond the minimum. In Chapter 2, philosophical analyses of hermeneutics distract the reader from what appears to be most important. The author focuses too much on ‘the path leading to the goal’ – in this case, the validation of specific concepts and phenomena – than on the goal itself, which is feminist security studies. An analysis of security studies from the point of view of feminism occupies the smallest part of the book.
However, as the author rightly notes, there are significant differences among feminists in terms of class and race. She asks the right question: to which men women want to be equal to: white, black, rich or poor men? Any feminist analysis should take the multiple visions of differently situated women into account. Otherwise, feminism becomes a part of the problem rather than the solution. Wibben concludes that feminists cannot create a homogeneous women’s group and build a coalition based on an ‘oppressed identity’, because feminist group membership is reserved for those who suffer from ‘patriarchal oppression’. At the end of Chapter 1, Wibben writes that the field of International Relations (IR) underestimates the contribution of feminists in security studies, and the researchers involved in the IR tend to ignore feminist perspectives. It is an important conclusion, but she doesn’t look for the reasons for this state of affairs, nor does she show how such a situation could change in the future.
A strength of this book is that it offers a constructive research strategy for studying contextual security narratives. If someone is looking for this kind of knowledge, the book brings a huge amount of specialized analysis. It is also a major contribution to the debates on the politics and practices of security. The author introduces the term ‘feminist security studies’ to turn our attention to the inattention of security studies scholars to feminist approaches. However, the greatest strength of this book is its empirical focus on the narratives surrounding 9/11. The book confronts ordinary women’s narratives of 9/11 and the dominant US narrative of the event introduced by President George W Bush. It illustrates the power of narrative forged from the position of political authority in comparison to the position of normal people. Another strength of the book is that it combines different aspects of the issues. It does not focus only on one particular approach, but shows the available possibilities. Finally, it should be added that the book draws on disciplines other than political science (e.g. anthropology, sociology, philosophy, psychology) that can help the reader understand the issues affecting women internationally.